


oh-oh here she comes

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: Red in tooth and claw [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Avengers Assemble - Freeform, BAMF Maria Hill, Gen, Lions, POV Maria Hill, Post-Avengers, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Velociraptors, some violence, this is not the story you think it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 02:42:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2412011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn’t that Maria resented the Avengers, exactly.</p><p>It was more than putting that much power in the hands of a few individuals – some of whom were frightfully lacking in self-discipline – worried her.</p><p>“You just don’t like the fact that they could beat you in a fair fight,” said Nick, who knew Maria far too well.</p><p>“Sir,” said Maria stiffly, meaning <i>you did not just go there</i>, mostly because she didn’t want to admit that he was at least partly right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh-oh here she comes

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the story you think it is.

**oh-oh here she comes**

It wasn’t that Maria resented the Avengers, exactly.

It was more than putting that much power in the hands of a few individuals – some of whom were frightfully lacking in self-discipline – worried her.

“You just don’t like the fact that they could beat you in a fair fight,” said Nick, who knew Maria far too well.

“Sir,” said Maria stiffly, meaning _you did not just go there,_ mostly because she didn’t want to admit that he was at least partly right.

“Face it,” said Nick, because he didn’t believe in pulling his punches, “Thor alone has been dealing with things more dangerous than you are for years, and any one of the others could probably give you a run for their money even on their own.”

Maria glared at him, the evil-eyed unblinking glare that came naturally and which freaked out almost everyone except Phil.

And Nick, unfortunately.

“Don’t look at me like that, woman,” said Nick, unaffected. “You know I’m right.”

Maria’s fingers curled into claw-liked shapes as she gritted her teeth, resisting the urge to hiss.

“I raised a perfectly valid point,” she said, instead of arguing. Nick just raised an eyebrow.

“You think the World Security Council did a better job with the Chitauri Invasion than the Avengers?” he asked.

“You know damn well I don’t,” Maria snapped. “I just…”

“What?”

“I just don’t like knowing there are people out there who I couldn’t take down even if I needed to,” Maria finally confessed.

Nick, damn him, looked unsympathetic.

“Welcome to everyone else’s world,” he grunted, ending the discussion there.

* * *

After the Chitauri Invasion, the word ‘Avengers’ was on everyone’s lips. Some people loved them, others hated them, but no one could deny that they’d saved the Earth when no one else had managed it. And that meant that the Avengers were _necessary_.

Maria grimly accepted the idea, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Romanov and Barton she didn’t mind so much – they were good agents, and  in the end they were only human. Even working together, they’d have trouble taking on Maria if she really wanted to bring them down, and Maria knew it, even if they didn’t.

Rogers Maria didn’t mind all that much either, because while she had no doubt that he’d killed before and could easily kill again if circumstances called for it, he still couldn’t match Maria for lethality.

The others, though… Thor was a _god_ , with strength and tenacity almost no one native to Earth could match, with an artefact forged from the heart of a dying star and a temper that had made itself evident when they were dealing with Loki. The Hulk was even worse than Thor, an unbridled mess of rage and destruction who could flatten Maria with one swipe of a fist, his green skin impervious even to bullets. Maria couldn’t stand either of them. And then there was Stark.

Hah. _Stark_. Where to even _start?_

On paper, he was the most harmless of the bunch: an ordinary, unaugmented human of normal strength and speed, and with the physical disability of a foreign object embedded in his sternum and taking up half his ribcage, barely leaving enough room for his lungs.

That was on paper. In reality? Stark was clever, and cunning, and _ruthless_. Maria didn’t know what he’d been like before he was kidnapped – before Afghanistan – but he’d come back dangerous as hell. He’d turned himself into the most dangerous weapon Maria had ever seen, had singlehandedly wiped the people who had captured him _off the map_ , and gone on to secure a fragile, worldwide peace with a mix of charm, ruthless capability, and obnoxious implacability.

The other Avengers might be more powerful, but _Stark_ was the one you’d never see coming. And Maria – Maria wasn’t just strength and reflexes. She was _instinct_ , predatory and calculating, and she recognised another hunter when she saw them. Stark was probably the worst in the entire lot, and if Maria ever had to go up against him, then she’d probably already lost, because Stark’s brain was always moving several steps ahead.

“You don’t like Stark much, do you?” Rogers commented after a meeting, in which Maria had gritted her teeth and dug her nails into her palms and resolutely resisted shifting into her other shape.

“He’s dangerous,” Maria said succinctly, without trying to explain what she understood down to her bones. Instinct was instinct, and there was no point in trying to explain it to someone else.

Rogers just looked at her with sincere blue eyes.

“I know he seems irresponsible,” Rogers said earnestly, “but he’s not as bad as he pretends, you know.”

Maria bared her teeth in an expression that someone human might have mistaken for a smile.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, and left, leaving Rogers staring after her with a frown.

* * *

Maria learned long ago to adapt her behaviour to fit in better. It was easier at SHIELD, where she was allowed to be more brusque, more aggressive, more _unfeminine_ than in the world at large, but even there, she was constantly altering her behaviour to something more socially acceptable, less wild and angry than she _wanted_ to be. She’d learnt to be reasonable, to act on logic rather than impulse, to behave more softly and more empathically than came naturally.

Again: that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Sometimes, though, the temptation to let loose got the better of her.

“ _What was that?_ ” Maria snarled, barely holding onto human shape as she spun around to face Stark. Her teeth were bared, her arms curving back and bent at the elbows, fingers curled into claw-shapes.

Stark actually took a step back, his eyes wide. Maria knew that people were going to make snide comments about her behind her back, but like hell she was going to put up with them doing it while she was _still there._

“Hill,” Nick said warningly.

Maria took a deep breath, and straightened out of her half-crouch, letting her arms hang by her sides, uncurling her fingers as she closed her eyes and did her best to centre herself in the part of her that wasn’t rage and killing instinct. Closed her jaw, and opened her eyes.

The Avengers were all staring at her, with various expressions. Rogers looked surprised and concerned, Banner wary, Thor surprised; Barton looked even more wary than Banner, while Romanov’s expression could only be termed _calculating._

“On second thought, maybe you’re better off keeping the stick where it is,” Stark said weakly. “God knows what you’d do if you unclenched.”

Maria snarled again, and took a step forward.

“ _Hill!_ ” Nick called again, more sharply this time.

“Yes, sir,” Maria gritted out, turning to face him. Part of Maria wanted to disembowel him for calling her to heel; the rest of her recognised him as pack-leader, and grudgingly agreed with his call.

“Go grab something to eat in the cafeteria and calm down,” Nick said, looking at her with a keen eye and a frown. “How close is it to the full moon?”

Maria glared at him, because saying something like that in front of geniuses like Stark and Banner was just asking for trouble, but replied reluctantly, “Tonight, sir.”

Nick’s eye narrowed.

“When was your last vacation?” he demanded.

Maria had to stop and think; it had been a while. Apparently that meant it was too long ago, because Nick said into the silence,

“Agent Hill, you have the rest of the day off. I expect that when you turn up tomorrow, any problems with your temper will be resolved.”

Maria resisted the urge to snap her jaws at him.

“Yes, sir,” she hissed, and turned and stormed off the bridge.

By the time Maria had changed into civvies and grabbed the first quinjet back to New York, she was feeling a little regretful about losing her temper, and in front of the Avengers of all people. But the group of superheroes always put her on edge, and hearing Stark make the kind of comment that people didn’t usually have the balls to make to her face had been the last straw. Maria was usually good at self-control, even on a full moon – good enough to keep human shape, if she wanted – and it was a bad sign that she’d lashed out like that.

Maria sighed, and ran her fingers through her hair.

Maybe it was just as well that she’d been given the day off. She’d spent too long in human form without shifting, that was the problem, and it was making her antsy, an itch beneath her skin.

Maybe it was time to sate it.

* * *

The next day Maria returned to work calm, collected, and as composed as she usually was. Which was just as well, under the circumstances.

“Hill, I want you running this op,” Nick ordered, swooping past in his coat. Maria sighed, but Sitwell was off on a different mission, and they needed someone reliable running herd on the Avengers.

“Yes, sir,” Maria said resignedly, and went off to oversee the Avengers’ latest confrontation.

All kinds of idiots had been popping up ever since the invasion, wielding everything from giant lasers to shrinking rays, either proclaiming themselves Masters of the Universe or challenging the Avengers in battle. Sometimes they did both. Either way, it was becoming tiresome.

“What exactly have we got here?” Maria asked through the comm., as the jet landed in the street and Maria and the other agents strode out.

“It, uh, it looks like a team of genetically-enhanced lions?” one of the agents offered, as Maria watched Thor bat away a monstrously-sized lion with his hammer. Barton was up high, shooting from beyond  the lions’ reach, while the Hulk tried to smash them, Stark hit them with repulsor blasts (which didn’t seem to do much good), and Rogers dinged the nearest lions with his shield. Romanov had also gone for height, and was shooting at the lions with her handgun.

Maria suppressed a sigh at the sight.

“Genetically-enhanced lions,” she said flatly, and put a hand to her earpiece. “Captain, sitrep.”

“The lions are definitely enhanced,” Rogers grunted, beaming another lion with his shield. It shook its head and growled, and Rogers retreated. “Sedation didn’t work. The only ones who seems to be having any success are Thor and Hulk–”

One of the lions turned in Maria’s direction, gathered itself, and leaped. Maria and the others were some distance away, but the trajectory of the animal’s leap was right where Maria and the others were standing.

“ _Shit!_ ” one of the agents with Maria called out in alarm.

Instantly all the agents went for their handguns, but the bullets were doing nothing and the lion was in the air, ten feet of lean muscle and 1000 pounds of bite force, and Maria thought, _No._

The undulating call ripped free of her throat without any conscious thought involved, and Maria leaped, bringing her feet up in front of her, soaring through the air. Just before she and the lion collided Maria brought her feet slashing down, feeling the sickle claws slice through flesh.

Maria and the lion landed in the street, the lion roaring in pain, and Maria leapt again, slashing a second time and bringing the lion down. A moment later Maria’s jaws closed on the back of its neck, and _crunched_. Then she stood, scenting the air.

She was about four metres long from head to tail, covered in patterned feathers that should have made her seem less intimidating, but didn’t. The second toe on each foot ended with a sickle-shaped claw, and her teeth were sharp and scissored.

The humans around her were yelling and acting like a bunch of panicked hens, but Maria focused all of her attention on the lions. Maria stalked forward, breaking into a run.

Four of the lions had finally been knocked unconscious by Thor, but three were still ambulatory. They were large animals, but Maria was bigger, and far more efficient at hunting than they were.

The lions turned to face Maria as she ran towards them, roaring in challenge, but Maria let out the undulating call again, and the lions’ formation broke, as their fight-or-flight instinct warred with itself.

The other Avengers were standing some distance away, watching incredulously, but Thor was still valiantly attacking the lions with his hammer as though seeing someone shapeshift was something he saw every day.. Another lion was knocked to the ground and lay still. The two remaining lions roared, and turned to run, but Maria was already among them. It took only a few moments to bring her jaws down on their necks, killing them both.

Ignoring the instinct to devour her kills, Maria stepped away from the dead lions and shifted back into human shape. For a moment her balance was all wrong, but Maria was used to that, and it only took a couple of seconds to adjust to the sudden lack of a tail.

Maria made a face at the taste of blood in her mouth, and turned to look warily at the Avengers.

“You just turned into a dinosaur,” said Stark, his voice distorted by the helmet of his armour. He flipped up the face-plate and stared at her.

“Velociraptor,” said Maria. “Does anyone have any water? I’d like to rinse my mouth out.”

“ _You turned into a velociraptor_ ,” Stark said, with emphasis. “ _How?_ ”

Maria shrugged.

“I’m a were-velociraptor,” she said curtly, and waved over her second-in-command for the op. “Davidson! Grab me a bottle of water from the jet.”

Davidson, who was standing with the other agents, looking just as stunned, pulled himself together enough to give Maria a nod and jog back towards where the quinjet was parked.

“A were-velociraptor?” Barton blurted. “How is that a thing?”

“I always wondered why you set off all my alarm bells,” said Romanov, watching Maria carefully. “This wasn’t what I expected.”

“No one expects it,” Maria said, a little wearily.

“Do you not have shapeshifters on Earth?” Thor wondered loudly, frowning. “I have never before encountered one who took on Agent Hill’s other shape, but I have met shapeshifters who take on the forms of other animals. They are uncommon, but not unknown amongst the other realms.”

The Hulk chose that moment to shrink down into Dr Banner, who immediately keeled over, unconscious.

“We can discuss this later,” Maria said dryly, and turned away to begin directing agents, taking back control of the op.

* * *

Maria was at her desk, typing up the mission report, when a tall figure in black entered her peripheral vision. She didn’t look up as the figure crossed over into her central vision, and placed a cup of coffee down on the edge of her desk.

“I’ve been fielding questions from Stark since you and the others got back,” said Nick, looking down at Maria. “Changed in front of them, huh?”

“That lion would have torn through my agents,” said Maria, without bothering to look up from her computer screen. “It was instinct. Besides, I always wondered how a velociraptor would stand up to a lion. Now I know.”

“Maria Hill one, genetically-enhanced lions zero,” Nick responded dryly. “I think you traumatised some of the agents.”

“They’ll get over it,” Maria said, her voice clipped.

Nick snorted, and sat down in the chair perpendicular to her desk.

“If that situation was enough to traumatise them, they shouldn’t have been out there in the first place,” he said. “No, I think it was more the discovery that the person some of them have been badmouthing behind her back is literally capable of tearing them limb-from-limb.”

Maria stared at the computer screen without typing.

“You think I don’t know what people say?” Nick asked, not unkindly. “You don’t make it to Deputy Director without some people getting jealous, and I know it’s worse for a woman. We try and weed out the misogynists, but there’s always a few we either miss or whose skills are essential to SHIELD.”

“I know,” said Maria, finally looking at Nick. “I know what the situation is, Nick.”

“Just as long as you also know that I will always go to bat for you,” said Nick. “You’re a damn good agent, Maria, and I’m not about to let that go to waste just because the rest of SHIELD’s discovered you turn into a dinosaur from time to time.”

Maria acknowledged this with a nod, feeling a thread of affection for her pack-leader.

“Thank you for the coffee,” she said.

“Thought you might need it,” was all Nick said in reply. He left the room in silence, leaving Maria to finish writing the mission report.

Maria slowly went back to working on the mission report, thinking over her situation. The WSC… they probably weren’t going to react well to the discovery that a were-velociraptor was the Deputy Director of SHIELD. It was one thing to hire people like her as consultants, or junior agents; it was another to make her the second-in-command of all of SHIELD. The WSC was likely to kick and scream over that, but after the way they’d handled the Chitauri invasion, their decisions were already being reviewed by various government organisations around the world. They’d have to tread carefully right now, and Nick was likely to use that to his advantage in defending her.

Maria thought of her family, living out in the middle of nowhere where they could shift whenever they liked without worrying about witnesses, hunting game and running wild. It would have been an easier life, without worrying so much about self-control or the danger of discovery, but even now, Maria preferred the choice she’d made.

Maria finished her report and submitted it.

Whatever happened next, she’d deal with it. She was good at that.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who are curious, current science says that velociraptors looked kinda like [this.](http://emilywilloughby.com/gallery-data/images/full/the-velociraptor-hunting-dance.jpg)
> 
> Also, anyone who gets the title of this fic wins points. :)


End file.
